When She Sleeps
by veerserif
Summary: When River sleeps, they go to work. Chapter 4: "Fruity Oaty bars, makes a man out of a mouse..."
1. When She Sleeps

**When I Sleep****  
**  
White walls, bright lights.  
"Brain activity is normal. Let's begin."  
The metal gleams. Closer, closer.  
White coat with blue hands.  
A sharp prick. She doesn't flinch, not anymore. Too tired.  
"Subject is unresponsive - do it again."  
So many voices, machines and men. Sometimes she can't tell the difference. They are all drops in the flood of sound.

They are cutting again, and again, and again.  
Maybe before she would have fought. Or did she already? She's not sure.  
"Patient is not quite lucid." "Good. They'll be easier to implant that way."  
Dreams are like life, sometimes maybe.  
Maybe this is a dream.  
She'll wake up and she'll be home, and Simon will be there to tell her everything's fine.  
But if it isn't -

In the silence of the room, River dreams.  
She dreams of waking.

_A/N_: This is my first piece of fanfiction, ever. Constructive criticism is not only welcome but encouraged!


	2. Reader

The room should be quiet, save for the humming of machinery, but it isn't.  
The attendant paces.  
"_Will this work?"  
_But his mouth hasn't moved and he is still walking.  
She does not understand.

The second time, she is ready.  
Awake, warily watching the doctor –  
"_Just a job."  
_"River? Can you hear me?"  
Ready does not mean comprehending.  
She recoils from the unheard voice.  
The line between reality and illusion is blurrier now.

She's learned to accept it. She knows what they've done. But she doesn't have to like it.  
Dressed up like a prize animal.  
"Our star pupil."  
Phrases and triggers.  
Whirling, striking, a dance.  
In the middle of it all, the buzz of minds.  
Approving. Rejoicing. Concern, but not for her.  
She expects no less from them.  
She wishes she did not know. So she pretends not to, and hopes they won't notice.  
_A gift and a curse.  
_But she cannot see it ever being a gift.


	3. Rebirth

_A/N: Thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far! If you have any suggestions for what the next chapter should be on, feel free to tell me._

The container in front of her looked far too small to fit a person.  
"Mei-mei? It's okay. I'll be there when you wake up."  
She stands perfectly still.  
It looks cold and impersonal, all shiny metal and uncaring glass.  
It reminds her of the Academy. She will not go, she won't, she won't –  
"River, it's fine. I promise."  
He guides her towards it, and because she trusts him, she lets him close the lid on the steel box.  
"I'll be there when you wake..."

She feels, rather than hears, the hiss of the lid sliding open.  
Light through closed eyelids.  
The cold, sterile air of the box rushes out around her.  
The smell brings back memories  
Needles. Screens. Jumbled thoughts in harsh silence, moving closer and closer.  
"_What do you see? Tell us what you see!"  
_She opens her mouth and screams.  
Screams in fear. In pain.  
She screams because the sudden change is frightening and she _hopes_ so much that this is real.  
That she won't wake up in a chair strapped to the instruments that have been part of her life for so long.  
That Simon is here.

And he is, and she is free.  
Just like he promised.


	4. Adverts

_A/N: Real life had me bogged down, but I broke out! _

The bar room below her is raucous, filled with the jeers of the drunken and the trying-not-to-be-sober. It's barely contained chaos.  
She approaches the stairs, going down slowly until she touches the scrubbed floor.  
A flash of colour.  
It's a screen, on the edge of her vision.  
She strains to single out the sound.  
"Fruity Oaty bars, makes a man out of a mouse..."  
It's mesmerizing. Reminds her of –

The pulsing of the background.  
The positioning of the shapes.  
The figures' movements, even their designs.  
Not a coincidence.  
Couldn't be.

Suddenly the commercial stops being a commercial.  
This picture says only one word, framed in colour, movement, sound.  
In anguish and in shame.

"_Miranda._"


End file.
